Mediterranean Academy of Architecture

The Mediterranean Academy of Architecture is a center of training and research that wants to be at the cutting edge in the current architectural context, trying to give answers and visions to the challenges of our time. Located in the city of Cava de’ Tirreni, gateway to the Amalfi Coast, the Academy explores different topics like the architectural design in the digital age, the new processes of digital fabrication, urban ecological strategies, complex systems and data management, the future of cities in terms of energetic and social sustainability, new strategies for an ecological economy. The Academy, with a diversified and highly specialized training, tries to give an answer to the real large scale problems , through the topics recapture in the specific local instances. The geographical position of MAA, in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, reinforces the vision of the Academy that resumes and incorporates the Mediterranean approach, not only as a place but also as a thought: - Trying to integrate new technologies and local roots - Trying not to lose human vision within cities - Trying to broaden the concept of nature - Implementing connections between different fields of knowledge - Strengthening the spirit in the search for new scenarios and new challenges. The Mediterranean for his vocation has been for thousands of years the scenario where innovation, research, knowledge and interactions were the motives of extraordinary human events that told the rise and decline of myths and their epics. The academy does not want to catch anything from this sea, there is not current, or at least cutting edge, with the exception of vocation, that this place / thinking has in creating new horizons. The academy offers, each year, different educational offerings with the goal of arriving, in 2014, to the proposal of two masters of nine months. Educational programs are open to students of all nations, not necessarily with training techniques, ranging from anthropology to engineering, from economy to art. The Academy works around the Mediterranean fab lab, a laboratory where students can develop their projects and follow the lessons of the Academy, they can study and do research. The Medaarch is also active in the organization of exhibitions, popular events, conferences about topics of specific interest, promoting scientific meetings and international forums. The MAA is a promoter of initiatives to implement the academic and scientific collaboration between different universities, institutions and research centers and it establishes collaborative efforts with local and national authority acting as consulting centre and research center.